Subjects and Faculties and the wide array of Degree and Diplomas offered are the chief determining factors. Universities with all-round disciplines only can make it to top 100 (overall rating). Subjectwise ranking is entirely different.

IITs and IIMs are creamiest and best from India, under top 200 globally very easily subjectwise. As far as Engineering & Technology is concerned.

Global overall ranking requires multi-disciplines of study and research with a wide scope and range covering extensive areas of specialization and research. IITs do not offer arts, sciences and literature. Humanities have been added to in recent years only. No medical sciences either for which there are full fledged medical universities. No management studies in IITs for which in India we have IIMs and a second tier of management schools like the XLRI, ISB, etc.

Few universities in India have this all round qualification and facilities. Annamalai University is a rare one that boasts of both Engineering and Medical disciplines in the township in Chidambaram. Annamalai University (ironically founded by P Chidambaram’s grandfather Annamalai Chettiar) is a top ranking Indian university even if standards have slipped miserably these days. It is a rare one of its class in India to boast of heat treatment boilers for Mechanical engineering lab and a full fledged civil engineering workshop.

This is quite like University of Florida housing multi disciplines in the same campus such as medical, engineering, architecture and language schools. While this is norm in the case of public universities in the US, it is not so in India.

A friend’s IITian son analyzed deeply the scope of his masters degree in US. A bachelor’s degree in IITs of India seemed better according to this very bright boy who later joined Stanford. Only the top 10 US universities could match the IIT standards.

IISC (Indian Institute of Science) and Indian Institute of Physics are equally highly rated globally.

Irrespective of their ranking if any, they are acclaimed to be among the best by global standards.

IITs have to be rated under global engineering schools and IIMs for global management schools. Grouping horses with donkeys and asses is just not right!

From Google:

IIT Delhi was the highest-ranked IIT internationally, ranking 172nd in the QS World University Rankings of 2018, followed by IIT Bombay (179th), while 3 other IITs (IIT Madras at 264, IIT Kanpur at 293 and IIT Kharagpur at 308) make the top 310.

No Indian medical school in top few hundreds but believe me, 30% of medicos in America and UK are still we Indians! We may not be having the best medical institutions here in India but we still produce the best physicians in the world! We have top of the line, state of art hospitals and medical equipment. We are also a top medical tourist destination. Sometimes, we can not always go by statistics. Who devises these global ranking systems. What are the exact parameters. Are they reliable. How far are they standardized.

Fourth tier: Too many of private engineering colleges mushrooming through out the nation without upkeeping standards.

Management schools also have 3 tiers in India. After bachelor degree in engineering (a majority cases) or commerce or CA, one has to clear CAT to get into one of these.

First: IIMs

Second: XLRI, ISB, SP Jain

Third: Great Lakes, Symbiosis

Fourth tier: Every other university may have an MBA program though without much of market value. Where you come from matters.

Medical Universities ranking in India: Entry after clearing NEET. Seats could be anywhere through length and breadth of India. A good rank in NEET entrance may procure a candidate medical seat of his/her choice and place.

Tier 1: AIIMS, AFMC

Tier 2: JIPMER, PGIMER, CMC Vellore

Tier 3: State Medical college hospitals.

Tier 4: Private medical universities (Those who pay for management seat of these private medical universities will never clear NEET for PG as well and will have to pay through their nose to get a PG seat)

Tiers 1 and 2 in India are real good whether it is Engineering or Medicine or Management.

Similarly Schools of architecture and Law schools and School for Journalism etc., privately managed (deemed/autonomous) universities from India too have a good and respectable ranking:

These may include

Symbiosis

Manipal

Amity

JJ college of architecture

ICAI and ICWAI take care of aspiring chartered and cost accountants. ICAI is the second largest professional Accounting & Finance body in the world.

From Catering & Hotel management to Fashion technology and other skilled and semi-skilled professional education and human resources, India is chartbuster! One of the most sought-after talent pool in the world today.

If Indian Education is not good enough we might not be having Sundar Pichchai today as CEO of Google. Pichchai did his schooling at Jawahar Vidyalaya and Vana Vani, not PSBB popular with IIT hopefuls and one of top 10 Chennai schools. Elitist. Graduated from IIT though. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft from Andhra Pradesh did not even attend an IIT. Ex Pepsico CEO Indira Nooyi attended an arts & science college in Madras (Chennai) before joining IIM. Citibank has had an Indian CEO. Almost every big global corporate brand has had an Indian CEO or other top level executive in the past. That means, we must be good. Good enough. Irrespective of the fact how we are ranked.

Missile man of India and the ex-President of India Dr Abdul Kalam never attended a foreign university. He was a 100% local product. The first question the Americans asked themselves about him on learning of his acumen and expertise is, “which US university did he go to?’ They were in for shock that Kalam was an agmark desi engineering & science graduate whose interest lay in space tech. Similarly the ISRO chairman of the present Dr K Sivan, who attended a Tamil school that he walked to bare-footed without slippers, helping his farmer father in the agricultural field to earn a few extra rupees, is a desi product. He turned down NASA offer to continue to work for India.

Other Indian global standings that may not have anything to do with university rankings:

India is a world’s leading software exporter and IT hub. India also belongs in the elite Space club having a successful Mars Mission and two Lunar missions as feathers in ISRO’s caps. India launched a record 104 satellites at one go in a world record. What rank from which university here.

India second only to China in global IT scene

India is NO.1 in Software development in the world

India belongs in the elite Space club

India’s first Lunar Mission Chandrayaan 1 discovered water on Moon

India is the first country in the world to reach Mars orbit in very first attempt, at least budget resources and in quickest possible time with the youngest scientists working the project

How many of top 100-200 ranked universities outside USA and China have been able to achieve India’s feat given our very limited resources and greater constraints.

There is room for great improvement. A thorough overhaul of our professional course syllabus is the need of the hour. The scope of the subjects taught is dismal. There has to be a holistic approach to the learning process in India.

Believe me or not, I have lived/interacted with dozen nationalities in last 20 years. Lived in Malaysia for 4 years. I have always felt that the IQ of Indians is much more than most Asians at least. Only Chinese/Korean/Japanese are similar to/better than us. India’s weakness is our spirituality quotient and high level of emotion being a family oriented society. Individual aspirations take a second place. We live for the community. Our priorities are not the same as Chinese for instance. How many chinese do you expect to go to cinemas, learn classical music not to perform but to soothe one’s soul, or still visit temples and/or go on pilgrimage. Even in Swiss, you can see them shop for watches to sell back for a neat profit at home. India is backward because living life well matters to us more than financial rewards or economic gratification.

The bubbly young techie who was riding a two wheeler lost her balance and came under a passing tanker, crushed to death (was she wearing a helmet – what a dumb question to ask). Reason: An illegal (political party) hoarding (flex banner) fell on her throwing her off her Scooty. All my weekend enthusiasm seems to have deflated in a single stroke. The irresponsibility and callousness of those in authority is shocking. No word for the angel’s grieving parents. She happened to be my husband’s friend’s kid’s college mate and best friend. A very bright, cheerful kid full of life, reportedly: donning many hats: Software engineer working in the city’s IT corridor, Zumba trainer, linguist and a few more. It is at times like these I completely lose faith in God. Whoever’s kid is that… how can life go on after this… Her parents’ only child…

Lost my appetite totally. 23. Like my daughter. Her parents must be like us…

I have received Whatsapp forwards on this to no avail. No political debate on any tv news channel. Silence from Arnab Goswami. I am blank here. No knowledge. Hoping for Republic tv to pick it up sooner or later.

Awaiting more information and investigation on this. No word from even Dr Subramanyam Swami???

Very painful watching this knowing (or rather learning) what is going on in India and how the nation is losing heavily while the common man is fleeced mercilessly. As I do not know much about this scandal, I rest my case. My only counter is a fervent prayer to set right things that are gone awfully wrong.

If you think I was happy to see Sadhguru or our PM at ISRO Control room at the zero hour of this 7th September, you are wrong.

As much as I appreciate our PM’s thoughtfulness as to be there when ISRO was about to make history (without a wink of sleep right from the Russia tour), I wish he had rather missed the event (even in the rare case of being invited). I wish the Sadhguru had stayed away as well. The media presence was a menace, a nightmare. True, I was carried over by the hype myself.

My heart goes out to the scientists, technicians and engineers, especially the unassuming ISRO chairman Dr K Sivan who were distracted to maximum degree the D Day with the fuss that must have been generated around the VIP presence. Was it a space agency or circus?

Not that the critical manoeuvre of the Lander Vikram was a last minute job. Chandrayaan 2 has been an ongoing project since July 22nd. Everything was set. Only buttons needed to be pressed for the lander to separate from the orbiter and make it to the moon’s surface. Yet, one cannot underestimate the high level of significance attached to this grand finale. The ultimate climax.

None of us especially those from scientific community were enraged or disappointed. We only became sad. I am married to an engineer and I am mother of an engineer. I know what it takes to execute something with scientific precision. I know the stress levels. I know the men’s sense of responsibility. I know that success could still be all elusive, despite doing everything textbook-correct.

Only if you have a sound academic background can you ever think the way I do.

I read a funny comment on this in social media. It is good that many people share my views, especially working professionals.

A man had posted in Tamil that, ‘beloved parents of a girl may give away their darling daughter in a lavish wedding but that does not mean they have to insist to be present in her suhaag raath!’ It came as a bolt really.

How will a surgeon feel if the kith and kin of a patient insist on being in the operation theater when his cardiac bypass surgery could be underway.

Comparatively, Chandrayaan 1 launch was a low keyed affair drawing minimum media attention. We knew about facts after they were presented by ISRO to the media.

I hear Sadhguru lectures. In one of them, he says how he sought to be alone on his own for a number of days/weeks/years to gain inner consciousness. Or a higher level of consciousness. Solitude seems to be very important to this well known spiritual guru famous for lecturing everyone. Sadhguru ji, can’t you still realize what harm you were doing to ISRO with your unwarranted presence. I have respects for you, but i am not a blind follower. I have contributed to your Cauvery Calling in my permissible individual capacity, but neither will I forget the elephant corridor you took over for Isha. I have been there myself. I have seen it with my own eyes. My heart did not stop because of the Isha. But it stopped thinking, ‘where will the elephants go. I do not care about what the Karunya Christian group of institutions is doing. I only know this is not the way of Shiva. I may not be enlightened like you, but I am enlightened enough to have my heart dominate my mind.

Suppose the contractor company MD has to come and sit with the construction worker working on a temporary steel platform erected in the air for a 100 storey building. Dear Prime Minister, what do you think will happen to the poor worker. Civil engineering dare devils. In our culture we don’t even eat well in others’ presence fearing ‘nazar.’

ISRO can do without the glam cheer boys seriously! For them, this is just one more photo-op what else!

I wondered whether I must bare my heart and blog this. Then I told myself, who must I be scared of. I have to be scared of only my Manasakshi. My conscience. I am answerable only to my conscience. Who else must I fear or be answerable to. There are people who all fear and respect. Then there are those who are loved most. I would rather belong to the second kind.

Media too had a very damaging role to play in all this, trying to make a scientific feat into a third rate Bollywood tamasha – all for what? For stupid TRP ratings my foot! Shame on these guys!

DEAR VIPS AND MEDIA, PLEASE LEAVE ISRO ALONE TO DO THEIR JOB!

This minute by minute scrutiny will only make them feel acutely self-conscious and guilty at heart for no reason. These guys have done nothing wrong. They are doing their duty to their best. ISRO is not your fancy fast food restaurant to serve your ego at your whim and fancy.

The success of ISRO must not be allowed to be hijacked by any VIP whoever it may be. ISRO must not share credit for their milestones with anyone – the pride is India’s.

One of these days, who knows Vikram lander might communicate after all. Of the 14 solar days of it’s life, an estimated 11 remain as of today. Anything is possible.

Wishing ISRO all the success in future! One step at a time. I know the pain of hardwork, patience and failure. Nothing is possible overnight. But success will be around the corner soon.

My blog post on Chandrayaan I, India’s first Moon mission way back in 2008 . Chandrayaan 1 incidentally found water on the moon. India discovered water on lunar surface. (with no edit)

Indian Tricolour flies high in the Moon

November 15, 2008

THIS MORNING I WOKE UP TO A BEAUTIFUL HEADLINE NEWS IN ‘THE HINDU’ FRONTPAGE WITH AN EXCELLENT PRECISION PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SURFACE OF THE MOON & WHOLE OF TODAY I SAW TIME AND AGAIN THE MOON IMPACT PROBE (MIP) FROM CHANDRAYAAN IN THE MOON’S SURFACE IN TV WITH THE FAMILIAR INDIAN TRICOLOR FLAG PAINTED ON ITS SIDES – INDIA HAS ARRIVED ON THE MOON! AND INDIANS ARE DEFINITELY OVER THE MOON RIGHT NOW TOO!www.hindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/200811155841010054.htm

November 14th 2008 saw MIP landing in the Moon from Chandrayaan – 1 AND THE INDIAN TRICOLOR FLAG NOW FLUTTERS HIGH IN THE MOON! Only USA, Russia and European Union flags have so far fluttered in the lunar surface. Indian National Flag is the 4th national flag to fly high in Chand – the Moon. “The Hindu” editorial proclaimed that this is 100% an indigenous effort. It has made us all proud – and ISRO CHAIRMAN MADHAVAN NAIR SAID, IT IS A GIFT TO THE CHILDREN OF INDIA. For the date of the MIP landing was 14th Nov which is celebrated as ‘Children’s Day’ by Indian schools – after Jawarharlal Nehru’s birthday. Nehru, the first PM of independent India luved children. Nehru ruled from 1947 to 1964 when he died. Incidentally it was during this period, ISRO was started. It was, believe me or not, Nehru’s vision that one day Indian tricolor flag should flutter on the Moon. It was the period when interest in Space began in India. What a grand coincidence that the Indian MIP should land in the Moon on Nehru’s birthday?

U have no idea what this does to the present GenNext of India – those of my son’s schoolmates who used to talk about working for NASA are now talking about working for ISRO and those govt depts like Atomic Energy Commission of India. Nodoubt these depts pay worst – but what a pride, what a career satisfaction? Even i am asking my son whether he is interested in Space sciences. Catch all Chandrayaan-1 pix at www.isro.org/

PS: Just learned via Social media, due to precious fuel saving without corrections, the life expectancy of the orbiter has been revised from 1 year to 7 years. Kudos! That is an awesome news indeed but needs further verification.

Last night was Shiv Rathri for us Indians across the globe. Not only did the resident Indians stay awake, but also NRIs and PIOs spread across continents. The entire Indian diaspora if I may say so. Chandrayaan 2 launched July 22nd from Sriharikota, almost created history. The Lander Vikram separated from Rover Pragyan from the Chandrayaan 2 (the mother satellite in good shape orbiting the Moon) stage by stage in text book precision absolutely following the trajectory of projection. The Rough Break phase was torturous wait for even those of us with not much of astrophysics knowledge. Stage 1 of clearance success, stage 2, success, stage 3, overwhelming success… only stage 4 remained of the tension filled 15 seconds that was more like one hour when we waited with our bated breath for a signal from Vikram … but then followed a lengthy silence from the ISRO Control Room at Bangalore as the radio communication from Vikram snapped… (the landing time was calculated at 1.53 am September 7th)… a billion hearts broke as the nation plunged into despair. The grief was writ large in the faces of ISRO scientists and engineers. Chairman Dr. K Sivan who was in tears was embraced by an emotional Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji. What a moment to live for. The final crowing glory that was denied, no more mattered.

PM Modi consoles ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan who breaks down…

So is Chandrayaan 2 a failure? No way! Only 5% of the Mission was lost with losing contact with the Lander Vikram. Chandrayaan 2 will be orbiting the Moon for the next one year, its estimated life. The orbiter has already beamed pictures of space, Earth and Moon back to ISRO center. India was attempting in this second Moon Mission of ours to soft land on the polar end of the Moon where so far no other nation (of the four to five countries that have their flags on the moon already) had dared to venture. It was risky and the probability of failure was very high. It is almost the dark side of the moon. India’s first Moon mission Chandrayaan 1 landed its probe near the equator of the moon, favourite landing spot for astronauts and other landers.

Chandrayaan 2’s lander Vikram was as close as 2.1 km from the surface of the moon where it should have landed. Whether it crashed or what happened to it will be revealed only through the scientific data. It is impressive that our scientists, technicians and engineers have given us such a precision in landing. Down there lies mystery that so far mankind has not known of. Unexplored space. Simply anything is possible.

Already the Congress govt introduced birth control TO ONLY HINDUS and reduced our population systematically, limiting our family sizes to 1 or 2 kids maximum. Hindu population has plunged since the independence from 90% to 70% today whereas the minorities have more than doubled, trebled. Now is BJP trying to reduce even our Elephant (God’)s population? This is madness.

Mindless encroachment on wildlife habitat and especially on natural elephant corridors linking valleys and underpasses and mountains the way Mother Nature created it, is happening because of hectic industrialization. Can’t we find other ways to avoid human-wildlife conflict. India is home to wildlife especially Indian elephants, single horned rhinos, monkeys, Bengal tigers, Asiatic lions, cheetahs, first and foremost among other flora and fauna, and then finally to homo sapiens. Because even if we humans perish, nature will continue to have its way. This wildlife is God given gift to India – and this beautiful nature. Are we even worthy of such a precious gift.

I request PM Shri Narendra Modi ji to immediately look into this affair and stop any such horrific plan on its tracks to introduce family planning to the jumbo family. Modi ji,on this Ganesh Chaturthi day, I submit to you this humble plea. Save the Indian Elephant. Please do not enforce birth control on any form on our wild life especially our elephants. Cannot imagine India without our elephants. Can you imagine India without Ganpati Bappa?

Elephants are endangered species already. While wildlife lovers are worried about their dwindling population, it comes as a rude shock that our government is actually planning to control our elephant population. Elephants have none to argue their case or champion their cause. Already domesticated (temple)/captive elephants are denied their right to mating. Forced to feed on imbalanced diet such as too much sweet (sugarcane and jaggery) for instance, leading to their ill-health. Their spirit broken and crushed, chained and enclosed in claustrophobic small spaces. Separated as calves from their herds. Is this not cruel enough. In the wild, every single day, an Indian elephant dies a torturous death either stepping on an animal trap or brushing against an electric fence of a farmer or hit by a speeding train along the railway crossing. Is there none to listen to their anguish. What a heartless society we have become.

How August 1947 was, we never knew. Down south, hardly any ripple about the partition was felt. From what I learned from stories told and retold in my younger years, from the only transistor (public property) in Luz, Mylapore, the All India Radio broadcast Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous speech ‘when the whole world sleeps….’ – of the oft-quoted ‘Freedom At Midnight.’ Hundreds of men had gathered there waiting for hours to listen to this historic speech that was tuned to maximum volume. ‘National flag hoisting in schools and offices next day which was declared government holiday (August 15th) followed by sweets distribution, then all went home. Next day business as usual with schools reopening!!!’ is the exact way the Independence Day August 15, 1947 was described to me. As uninteresting as that!

72 years later, August 2019 is being a different one. Our Independence Day this year was a buoyant one, no doubt. What a journey this has been for India. A short recap of this whirlwind month of August’19:

CENTRE SCRAPPED ARTICLE 370 AND ARTICLE 35A GIVING SPECIAL STATUS TO JAMMU & KASHMIR ON AUGUST 5TH, 2019. LADAKH BECAME A DISTINCT UNION TERRITORY. FOR THE PRESENT, JAMMU & KASHMIR TO CONTINUE TO BE A UNION TERRITORY, TO BE RESTORED WITH STATEHOOD IN TIME. WITH THIS, THE NEHRU BLUNDER WAS RECTIFIED BY BJP PRIME MINISTER SHRI NARENDRA MODI’S GOVERNMENT IN A SINGLE STROKE. HISTROY REWRITTEN, HISTORY MADE! AFTER 72 LONG YEARS, JAMMU & KASHMIR WAS INTEGRATED WITH THE UNION OF INDIA.

First Images of Planet Earth beamed by Chandrayaan 2 released by ISRO

CHANDRAYAAN 2, INDIA’S SECOND LUNAR MISSION, LAUNCHED JULY 22ND, CONTINUED ITS VOYAGE TO THE MOON, BEAMING THE FIRST SET OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF EARTH & MOON THIS AUGUST. AT LEAST TWO INDIAN SCIENTISTS HAVE THEIR NAMES ETCHED IN THE MOON NOW: SISIR MITRA AND VIKRAM SARABHAI, FOUNDER OF ISRO, WITH LUNAR CRATERS NAMED AFTER THEM.

INDIA’S PV SINDHU CREATED HISTORY BECOMING THE FIRST INDIAN TO WIN THE WORLD BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS (BWF) ON AUGUST 25H, 2019

Modi Trumped Donald on Kashmir who agreed Kashmir is a bi-lateral issue between India and Pakistan

INDIA AT G7 ON AUGUST 26, 2019 ON INDIA’S TERMS.

Order of Zayed, UAE’s top civilian award conferred on PM Modi

Bahrain confers the nation’s highest civilian award, The King Hamad Order of Renaissance, on PM Modi

Earlier, our Prime Minister was also presented with highest order of awards by the UAE and Bahrain- two of them in a single day. This takes the count to 6 – the number of islamic nations that have honoured Shri Narendra Modi with their highest civilian awards.

Wonderful!

The other side:

Sushma Swaraj

Arun Jaitley

INDIA LOST SMT SUSHMA SWARAJ, EX HOME MINISTER – INVALUABLE ASSET TO THE NATION, ON AUGUST 6TH 2019

Two gems lost in a single month from the crown. This is not just BJP’s loss, this is national loss. With them, BJP and the nation have lost three precious sons and daughter of India including Manohar Parikkar who was our ex- Defence Minister. Irreparable loss.

What an August this has been for us. In between, there was the telecast of ‘Man Vs Wild’ featuring PM Modi with Bear Grylls in the Discovery channel. It came as a breather. None of us anticipated August 2019 to unfold this way. It has been one roller coaster ride for us Indians.

Neither is Rupee doing great. Once again after over an year or two, INR breached the 70 rupee mark against dollar, thanks to China-US trade spat. Markets are not good. Manufacturing slowing down. Registering Production losses and lay-offs. Monsoon mayhem everywhere in India except for in Chennai where it’s raining for a month now to no avail. Some gains and some losses.

We in India cannot say that the Amazon fires do not concern us. The enormous impact the fires will leave on our very existence in future is worth making the issue our top priority. My humble request to everyone who cannot directly do anything in his/her/their lone capacity to put off the raging fires: say a small prayer for Bhooma Devi, Mother Earth. Pray for quick extinguishing of fires. The array of flora and fauna lost to the fires is unimaginable! The loss of habitat for the wildlife and the native tribes is worse. There is every reason to believe this is corporate managed which makes this whole tragic affair a sordid one. Still, in whichever forum you can, please put in a word about the Amazon – Brazil and Bolivia fires. The fires now encompass nine Latin American nations. Wherever you are, write/add/speak a word about wildlife, environment, water resources, pollution. Thank you! You won’t be making a penny out of this probably, but neither will you be losing one!